Political/community experience: RTD Board of Directors for the past four years; prior tenure on Humane Society of Boulder Valley Board of Directors

Education: College and law school

What is your position on completing FasTracks through Boulder County and if you were elected, how do you plan on accomplishing it?

I strongly support completing the promised FasTracks rail corridor through our county, because we are paying taxes for it and because FasTracks rail corridors are bringing prosperity wherever they are built. We deserve that prosperity, too. Since lack of funding is the major problem in attaining our rail, I plan to continue working with corridor municipalities to create the most cost-cutting and cost-effective rail operational plans possible and to look for new funding sources to build it, such as the creation of new transportation funding districts. I also support the building of appropriate bus rapid transit improvements in our county, in tandem with our FasTracks rail, so that the combination will really jump-start transit in our county.

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Are public-private partnerships the way forward for RTD, such as have been used on the A Line (which has experienced service problems) and the B Line?

In a time of budget constraints, government needs to be able to use as many financial tools as possible to raise necessary funds. A public-private partnership is one such tool to raise private capital for government projects, and if it is crafted in a way that the public is protected, it can be a useful tool. RTD's use of such partnerships in the past has enabled FasTracks corridors to be built years earlier than they would have without these partnerships, and in spite of the operational problems presently being experienced, that has been a very good thing. Thus, I think each public-private partnership needs to be evaluated individually, on its own merits, to determine if it is the best way forward for the public.

How often and where do you personally use public transportation?

I took public transit regularly on bad weather days when I worked at the EPA, and I do the same thing now when I attend RTD board meetings in Denver.

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